Nothing better than a warm bowl of soup on a cold day. I love cooking soup in the winter for two purposes. The first one is to deliver goodness, healthy and plenty of liquid for the body. Secondly, it makes sense to cook soup which takes a long time, and helps to warm up the house. For that reason, today, a very cold and snowy day I cooked a very special beef noodle soup for my family and here I am sharing the recipes as well as method of cooking it.

Recipes

Broth baseIngredients 4 pounds pork neck bones 1 beef shank (about 3 pounds) 2 pounds oxtail (preference, you don't see it in the picture because I didn't have it) 2 to 6 lemongrass stalks (again, I only had 2 left but it works out fine) 8 quarts of water 5 shallots 5 pieces of fresh ginger 5 white parts of scallion (spring onions) 1/2 cup of salt 1 table spoon of rock sugar MethodsIn a large pot, put all the bones, beef shank, oxtail and cover it with water. Bring everything to a boil and let it boil for 2-4 minutes. Discard the water and rinse the bone and meat with cold running water. Place the bone and meat back to the pot and cover with 8 quarts of water. Bring to a boil. Skim off scum on top and reduce the heat to medium. Meanwhile, char the ginger, lemon grass, scallions and shallots. Put everything including the salt and rock sugar into the stock and let it simmer for at least 2 hours until the beef shank is soft and tender.

MethodsHeat up a frying pan with olive oil. Add annatto seeds for about 1 minute until the annatto seeds produce a beautiful reddish color. Discard the seeds. Keep the oil back in the same frying pan. Add chopped lemongrass, stir it for about 1 minute and then add garlic, paprika and chili pepper flakes if you want to add it in (prepare to cough like you never cough in you life because of the combination of heat, oil and spiciness). Put the cooked spice and herbs into the broth base that still simmering. Cook for half more hour. After 2 and half hour of simmering in medium heat. Take out the beef shank, neck bone, oxtail and dip the meat into a cold ice water to keep the meat color nicely. Discard the lemongrass, shallots, gingers in the broth. Add more salt and rock sugar as your desire. The broth now re ready to serve.

Methods Boil water and add rice noddle with salt. Cook like pasta cooking method for 15-17 minutes. Rinse the noodle in cold running water. Let it sits until all the water is gone. Chop all the herbs. Slice the meat after cooled down in the ice water bath

Garnish In a serving bowl, place the noodle in the bottom. On top, place meat, bean sprouts and herbs. Pour the boiling broth to the bowl enough to cover. Serve immediately.